The Hastings Printing Company

The Hastings Printing Company. Major Businesses of Milton. , Milton's first newspaper was the Miltonian, making its first publication on Sept. 21, 1816 only several months before the borough was even incorporated. Henry Frick was the first publisher. , There were many other newspapers throughout the nineteenth century, including the States Advocate, the West Branch Farmer and True Democrat, the Northumbrian, and the Milton Ledger. Two of them, the Argus and the Economist were also established papers. They merged to form the Weekly Record that ultimately became the Milton Evening Standard, established by William Penn Hastings in 1890. The Record and the Standard's first business location was 11 Broadway, now William Raup's Landmark Collections Studio. , William's father, John Hastings, and his grandfather, Thomas Hastings, were involved with publishing beginning with The Jefferson Democrat, which was printed in Brookville, Jefferson County. , After William Penn Hastings' death in 1911, his son, Penn G. Hastings took over the company and reorganized it. When Penn Hastings incorporated the business in 1914, stock was issued to himself and his brothers, John E., Percy W., Berkley V., and Fred G. Hastings. , Upon leaving the Broadway site, operations were setup in the room behind the Hotel Bartram on Arch Street, now the bar room of the Hotel Stetler. By the early 1920's, the company enjoyed modest success making it possible for the construction of a spacious new office and operations building in 1923 on Arch Street, the home of the Standard Journal today. , In January 1936, the fifth generation of the Hastings family came to the Standard. William P. Hastings, otherwise known as Bill, son of Penn, became advertising manager when Edward J. Coup left the position to devote full-time attention to his insurance business. Hastings continued this job for several years and left briefly to take a similar position in Philadelphia. However, he returned to the Milton Standard when his father Penn Hastings died in 1940 at which time he took over as publisher working alongside his uncle, Fred, who was editor of the Milton Standard from 1910 until he retired in 1956. Charles N. Johnson took over as editor at that point. , In 1952, the Hastings purchased the Union County Journal. Another major accomplishment was the conversion to offset printing in 1961, being only the second newspaper in Pennsylvania to convert to this printing method. , The Hastings Printing Co., by then a major commercial printing firm for numerous publications, was sold to Park Communications in 1986. Liberty Publishing now owns the Standard Journal.